The Los Angeles Lakers turned things around in Game 2 with a much better overall performance and now will head to Minnesota with their first-round playoff series tied at 1-1. One of the most memorable moments from Game 2 came courtesy of head coach JJ Redick in the third quarter.
With the Lakers looking to inbound the ball, Redick would call a timeout, and the live mics would pick up the coach cursing up a storm at the Lakers. While it wasn’t meant to be heard on TV, it was interesting to see how fiery Redick can get with his team.
Some may have wondered how a veteran like LeBron James would feel about it, but the Lakers superstar had no issue with Redick’s outburst and felt the team responded well to the message Redick was conveying.
“I thought we responded well, just from the timeout,” LeBron said. “We know JJ is gonna spaz out from time to time. That’s JJ. At this point, for us, obviously, we need to listen to the message, not the way he’s delivering it. For me, my high school coach my freshman year was kind of the same way. He spazzed out on us. And you have to be able to understand about it not how he’s saying it, but what he’s saying. And I thought we responded after that.”
LeBron and the rest of the Lakers are clearly accustomed to these Redick explosions from time to time, and, as he said, are more focused on the message he’s trying to convey. Redick himself noted that it wasn’t a frustration thing, but more about the Lakers becoming a bit disorganized and trying to squash that before it got worse and making sure they maintained their sense of urgency.
And as LeBron said, it worked as the Lakers stayed the course and held off the Timberwolves to pick up that win in Game 2. Redick will need to continue pushing the right buttons if the Lakers plan on escaping this first-round series and continuing their playoff run.
JJ Redick: Lakers & Timberwolves prepared for a ‘rock fight’
So far, the Lakers have not eclipsed 100 points in either of the first two games of this series, but with both teams being focused on defense, head coach JJ Redick isn’t too surprised that this series has turned into a bit of a ‘rock fight’ and thinks both teams are now prepared for it as well.
“I think you could sort of anticipate that, but we weren’t ready for a rock fight to start Game 1,” Redick added. “I’ve seen enough of these and been in enough of these that you can have these low scoring games and sort of low offensive output games that are really physical, and then all of a sudden someone starts making 3s and there’s turnovers that leads to a high transition half and somebody scores 120. That’s just kind of how basketball works. Every game is a little different, but I think the mentality for both teams is to have the rock fight.”
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